27 April, 2015

Minister to outline the future of Forestry Tasmania this week amid renewed calls for its scrapping

The future of publicly-owned forestry company Forestry Tasmania will be mapped out during an address in State Parliament by Resources Minister Paul Harriss on Wednesday.

PHOTO: The State Opposition says Forestry Tasmania has been hanging in limbo waiting to hear if it had a future. (ABC News: Tony King)

Mr Harriss said the Government intended to keep its election promise on the company.

"The Government took to the election a commitment to put Forestry Tasmania onto a sustainable footing

Cabinet signed off on the Government's response to a report on the viability of Forestry Tasmania on Monday.

Mr Harriss said the Government intended to keep its election promise on the company.

"The Government took to the election a commitment to put Forestry Tasmania onto a sustainable footing into the future, and we intend to deliver," he said.

Mr Harriss said he and Treasurer Peter Gutwein received the departmental report a couple of weeks ago and have been "constructively" working through its recommendations.

The Minister said the Government engaged consultancy company Deloitte to help the review Forestry Tasmania's economic and operational models.

They made a blue when they committed to withdrawing funding from Forestry Tasmania.
Tasmanian Opposition Leader Bryan Green
The Tasmanian Greens renewed its calls for the State Government to scrap the company.

Greens leader Kim Booth said he was worried the Government's review would be superficial.

"What we've achieved here is a financial disaster," he said.

"The Government's internal review into Forestry Tasmania will be completely inadequate in terms of getting to the bottom of what's happened since 1994 to 2014, when they've shrunk the value from $2.27 billion, down to $160 million."

Opposition leader Bryan Green said workers had been in limbo for months because the Government had refused to rule out winding up the business.

"That chair of the board has had to write to Forestry Tasmania workers reassuring them the Government is, he believes, hopefully working in their best interests," he said.

"They made a blue when they committed to withdrawing funding from Forestry Tasmania."

Mr Harriss said it had not yet been decided if the report would be made public.